Cloud computing is an information technology (IT) paradigm that achieves coherence and scalability through the sharing of computing resources. One specific approach to cloud computing is software defined networking (SDN), which consolidates the network intelligence in a centralized network component. This is accomplished by decoupling the data plane (i.e., the data packet forwarding process) and the control plane (i.e., the packet routing process), and implementing the control plane in one or more SDN controllers that are directly programmable. Thus, SDN may be used to deliver data services to a network of customers.
In some SDN implementations, the functionality traditionally provided via customer premises equipment can be offloaded to the cloud, so that all that is deployed at or near the customer premises is an SDN local access element. The local access element receives its configuration and provisioning data from management applications and databases hosted in the cloud, e.g., on an SDN controller.